Archeological Survey of the Proposed Westside Parkway, Fulton County, Georgia

In January 1997 Southeastern Archeological Services, Inc. conducted an intensive archeological survey of a 5.5 km long corridor for the proposed Westside Parkway in northern Fulton County. The survey was requested by Fulton County in anticipation of receiving State Department of Transportation funds for the project. For projects it funds, the state DOT requires consideration of potential effects to cultural resources in accordance with Federal Highway Administration standards. An earlier survey (Markham 1995) had found that there were no standing historic structures within the project's area of potential effect. Therefore the present survey dealt with only archeological resources. The project consists of almost equal lengths of new-location right-of-way (ca. 60 in wide) and widening of existing, two-lane roadway. Combining archival research (mainly the use of old maps and aerial photographs) with field survey (surface searching of exposed ground surfaces and shovel testing of obscured ground surfaces) four archeological sites were discovered in the area of potential effect for the Westside Parkway. Three of these, 9FU273, 9FU274 and 9FU275, are late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century house sites. All are moderately well preserved, with wells, yard vegetation and some building piers evident in varying degrees of integrity. All appear as standing, occupied houses set amid large cultivated fields on a 1938 aerial photograph. Later aerial photographs document the abandonment and loss of the structures between 1960 and 1972. While these sites are moderately well preserved, none are likely to yield significant new information about late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century lifeways or history. None are associated with events or persons significant in our past. Therefore, we recommend that these three sites are not eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. The fourth site, 9FU276, is Camp's Mill, a nineteenth century flour mill on Foe Killer (formerly Four Killer) Creek. Rock rubble ruins of the mill building itself lie within the area of potential effect, as does a 20 in length of the raceway. Remnants of the mill dam and most of the raceway still exist, but are well outside of the project boundaries. Camp's Mill is known to have existed at the time of the Civil War, but its date of origin and demise are not known. It is likely that the mill was built with slave labor shortly after Arthur T. Camp settled the property just before 1840. It is probable that the mill had ceased to operate by 1880. To assess the significance of the site, we carefully mapped the site and excavated three shovel tests and two lx2 m test units. Mostly twentieth century artifacts were recovered, including a layer of asphalt shingles that rested on bedrock underneath wall rubble inside the mill. The mill ruins themselves and the surrounding area have been used for dumping of trash and building supplies for much of the twentieth century. Because of the loss of integrity through the deterioration and loss of the building, contamination by twentieth century dumping, and resultant lack of archeological research potential, we believe the Camp's Mill site does not meet the criteria for eligibility to the National Register of Historic Places. In regard to the central purpose of this study, we recommend that no significant archeological resources (eligible or potentially eligible to the National Register of Historic Places) lie within the proposed project area (area of potential effect) and that no significant archeological resources will be adversely affected by the proposed undertaking.